Doubting Thomas presents a deep analysis of four key debates between Aquinas and his contemporaries, offering a fresh perspective on behalf of the saint’s major critics.While Thomas Aquinas remains by far the most influential philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages, many of his contemporaries considered him a dangerous innovator whose enthusiasm for the newly rediscovered Aristotle at points led him astray. Some theologians of the Franciscan Order, e...

Did God decide to save before he decided to create? Though this question is often considered abstract, its answer informs both the purpose and the nature of the incarnation.In The Justification of the Sinless, Brendan Case argues that God the Son would have become incarnate even if humanity had never sinned. The incarnation benefits creation in many ways besides redemption. Indeed, it is the ultimate reason for the creation of the cosmos itself.Case develops his ar...

Least of the Apostles is a study of Paul's relation, both in his ministry and through his epistles, to the rest of apostolic Christianity. Studies relating Paul to Judaism, the Roman empire, or Greco-Roman philosophy abound; we adopt the comparatively neglected approach of relating Paul specifically to his fellow apostles. The first three chapters explore the influence on Paul of sources from the earliest church (James and his circle, the "apostolic decree," and proto-Synoptic traditions),...

The Accountable Animal: Justice, Justification, and Judgement offers a theological meditation on the human being as an accountable animal. Brendan Case introduces the idea of accountability, not merely as a structural feature of human institutions, but as a disposition to submit to rightly-constituted authority, whether divine or human. He relates this conception of accountability to the key themes of "justice, justification, and judgment".

This collection examines the topic of time in the life and works of Augustine of Hippo. Adopting a global perspective on time as a philosophical and theological problem, the volume includes reflections on the meaning of history, the mortality of human bodies, and the relationship between temporal experience and linguistic expression. As Augustine himself once observed, time is both familiar and surprisingly strange. Everyone’s days are structured by temporal rhythms and routines, from watc...

Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., explains why Thomism is the solution to the present crisis of Modernism in the Church. The problem: The indications of the current crisis in the Church have “been not of a crisis of faith, but of a very grave malady of the intellect, which conducts itself on the tracks of liberal Protestantism and through relativism to absolute skepticism.” Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange’s solution: Thomism. “Thomism corresponds to the profound needs of the modern world because...

This important essay by the French Catholic philosopher articulates the foundation for his influential interpretations of Thomas Aquinas.Known for his influential writings that brought fresh relevance to the work of Thomas Aquinas, Jacques Maritain was one of the most important Catholic philosophers of the twentieth century. Although An Essay on Christian Philosophy is not generally considered to be among his major works, it is, in a sense, the key to unlo...

Here below man can know God only by analogy; hence we are constrained to apply to Him the three scientific questions: An sit, Quid sit, and Qualis sit, that is to say: Does He exist? What is His Essence? and What are His qualities or attributes? Consequently in theology, as in philosophy, the existence, essence, and attributes of God must form the three chief heads of investigation. The theological treatment differs from the philosophical in that it considers the subject ...

This indispensable companion to key post-Reformation theological texts provides clear and concise definitions of Latin and Greek terms for students at a variety of levels. Written by a leading scholar of the Reformation and post-Reformation eras, this volume offers definitions that bear the mark of expert judgment and precision. The second edition includes new material and has been updated and revised throughout.

This book is a collection of nine articles by the twentieth century's leading medievalist, Etienne Gilson. A major participant in the revival of Thomistic philosophy, Gilson was a member of the French Academy and, after a university career culminating at the Sorbonne and the College de France, he turned down an invitation from Harvard University to become the guiding spirit of the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto for several decades. Several of the arti...

Thomas Aquinas (1224/6-1274) was first and foremost a Christian theologian. Yet he was also one of the greatest philosophers of the Middle Ages. Drawing on classical authors, and incorporating ideas from Jewish and Arab sources, he came to offer a rounded and lasting account of the origin of the universe and of the things to be found within it, especially human beings.Aquinas wrote many works, but his greatest achievement is undoubtedly the Summa Theologiae. This presents ...

This volume, focuses on the issue of the infinity of God, particularly within the Roman Catholic tradition. The Old and New Testament do not mention God’s infinity. From 100 to 1200, only a few Christian theologians offered some insights into divine infinity. One of the earliest in-depth presentations on divine infinity was developed by Alexander of Hales and his co-editors of the Summa who began to unite the writings of Aristotle on infinity with the Christian understanding of the triune ...